Already a famous five-star deluxe resort hotel, the recently refurbished Kempinski Hotel Bahía was the perfect venue for one of the most elegant events on the annual Marbella calendar – the second edition of the annual Costa del Sol Beach Polo Cup. Organised by Isabel de Borbon, it is a stylish event that draws not only an international elite of top polo teams and players, but...

On Wednesday 12th December I had the good fortune of being invited to a very select gathering at the exclusive D.O.Mar restaurant on Marbella’s Golden Mile. Entitled ‘5 Estrellas, 4 Manos’, it proved to be a heavenly blend of gourmet cooking by Oscar Velasco and Paolo Casagrande – who between them have five Michelin stars – and the exquisite Champagne of our client, VIP Wine...

In keeping with the hotel’s recent makeover, Kempinski Hotel Bahia last week hosted the launch of a very interesting art exhibition with works by two big names from the music world, Brian Travers from UB40 and John Illsley of Dire Straits. The event started with an interview of the two rock legends by Giles Brown, where they revealed that from school age on they showed an aptitude...

Last week I went to see a concert. Now I’ve seen many in my life, from Queen in Sun City to Duran Duran in Gibraltar and Jamiroquai at the Starlite Festival, not to mention many memorable occasions at the Puente Romano, but this was different. Not only did I have to fly to London to see the artist; not only was the venue the beautiful Royal Albert Hall – something I have always...

Each year I’m invited to the annual Frankfurt conference organised by Grassroots Research and Allianz Global Investors, for whom Manifesto Design carries out international market research projects. The timing tends to schedule throughout the year, so I’ve seen Frankfurt in the spring, snow and summer – and this year it fell upon a warm end of August date. The annual schedule of...

On Thursday the 23rd of August, the Manifesto Design team were exclusively invited for the second time in three years to test drive a new Rolls-Royce car around Marbella, in association with long term business partner Callum Swan Realty. Beginning at the luxury property company’s office on Marbella’s Golden Mile was our director Michel Cruz and intern Eamonn Shiels, who eagerly...

We were delighted to be invited to the Santa María Polo Club in Sotogrande last week to experience one of the best summer sporting events held each year on the Costa del Sol. Polo ‘The Sport of Kings’ has long been connected to this region of Spain, and the tournament dates in Sotogrande are now highlights of its annual calendar. Interestingly for a sport considered in the UK to...

Next day, our plan was to take a route from Imilchil north to our next stop Azrou, in the Mid Atlas cedar woods, but after driving for an hour we found the road completely cut off by a serious rock fall. The road workers estimated that the boulders would be cleared in 3-4 hours but they were all sitting around and not really doing much work so that seemed dubious. We decided that,...

After leaving the Valley of the Roses, the real climb through the High Atlas Mountains began. There are two single-track routes you can take South to North – via the Todra or Dades gorges. We chose the Todra, which entails driving through a series of limestone river canyons – unfortunately always very busy with tourists, which spoils the experience a bit. We were headed to Agoudal...

I say trip to the Caucasus because if you mention Georgia most people think you went to the USA. I did have Georgia on my mind, but this time it was en route to Istanbul, where I was catching a connecting flight to the exotic mountain republic wedged between Russia and the Middle East. It was a press trip arranged through Essential Marbella, for whom I wrote a travel article that...